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Woman linked to Vitter is tested
Polygraph says she didn't lie about sex Tuesday, September 11, 2007By Kate Moran
Weeks after U.S. Sen. David Vitter tried to discredit her allegations, a woman who used to work as a prostitute in New Orleans passed a lie detector test averring that she had a "sexual relationship" with Vitter that lasted at least four months.
Magazine publisher Larry Flynt paid for the woman to take the polygraph test, and he plans to hold a news conference with her at his Beverly Hills office today to unveil the results and challenge the senator to submit to a polygraph.
The woman, Wendy Yow Ellis, claims that she had intercourse with Vitter in a French Quarter apartment at Dauphine and Dumaine streets in 1999, the year the Metairie Republican was elected to Congress.
Ellis, whose maiden name is Wendy Yow, said Monday that she took the polygraph test because Vitter tried to impugn her credibility at a news conference in July, when he denied news reports about his involvement with prostitutes in New Orleans without being specific.
"I have been called a liar all of my life," Ellis said. "This is one time that you can't call me a liar. I have admitted my wrongs. I am not proud of myself for my past, but my integrity and my self-respect mean more to me today than anything."
Flynt paid for Ellis to fly to California to take the polygraph, which was administered by Edward Gelb, a past president of the American Polygraph Association who also gave lie detector tests to the parents of JonBenet Ramsey, the child beauty queen who was found murdered in her family's basement in 1996.
Flynt also plans to pay Ellis for divulging details of her assignations with Vitter. Those will be published in the February or March issue of Hustler, according to Mark Johnson, the magazine's assistant managing editor and research director.
While Johnson would not say how much money Ellis could make off the deal, he said Hustler required the lie detector test to verify her story before moving forward with a contract.
'You have to define sex'
Vitter's press secretary refused to comment about the lie detector test Monday.